Tutorial: Bronze smokey eye!

Up untill now my tutorials have been very day-friendly and generally extremely wearable. As most girls who are into make-up, I sometimes like to kick it up a notch. The most worn look when going out to clubbing or dancing, (not that I do those things anymore. Boy that sounds old, I'm only 25!) is a dark smokey eye. Personally I opt for a shimmery bronze instead of black as black usually just looks bad on me, really. I'm too pale for it. The trick then is to keep the rest of the face and lips very understated to keep it from looking overdone.

It's a very picture heavy tutorial but I didn't feel like sacrificing resolution on making collages, so I kept them in a smaller setting, but just click them big!

Let's get to it, then!

As usual here is my naked face. I'm only wearing the Smashbox Photofinish Primer and Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

As this would be makeup for a night out, I applied thicker layer than usual of foundation. I used my Max Factor Facefinity 3-in-1 foundation in the colours Light Ivory 40 and Nude 47. I blended this into my skin with a damp Beauty Blender sponge.

I then concealed all my problem areas with the Catrice Camouflage Cream in 010 Ivory. I first applied it where needed with my finger and then blended it in with my Beauty Blender. My "problem areas" are generally around my nose, under my eyes and my chin! Women have hormones that make the skin around our noses prone to turning red during the day, so I always conceal there!

For my eyebrows I used an angled liner brush and Urban Decays "Buck" from the Naked (1) Palette and my Hema Eyebrow Gel in Brown. If you want to make sure your eyebrows stay "on" all day, run a bit of eyeshadow primer through them before application and remember to use a setting gel. This works for any kind of brow-application, whether you prefer pencil, powder or both!

To make sure the colour of the eyeshadow is intense, I applied a dark base to my eyelids and blended it slightly with my finger. This can be either just a regular pencil eyeliner, a gel eyeliner or a product meant for these things, such as seen above. This is a NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in the colour Dark Brown. These are very soft pencils, perfect to use as a base under eyeshadow, but in my experience cannot be worn on their own. If not worn with a base under them and a powder on top, they crease like mo-fos. But when used right, they can help you achieve just the look you're going for!

As a transitional colour in my crease, I used my Body Shop Honey Bronze Bronzer in shade 3. Applying this first really helps blend out the darker colour I'll be putting on the lid and also helping to blend in the dark Jumbo Pencil I've already got on the lid.

For my lid colour I used this dark golden-bronze by Inglot. I don't remember the number of this, but it's a stunning colour. The gold/warm tone of this eyeshadow also really helps bring out the blue in my eyes, which I like a lot! I patted this onto my eyelid using a flat shader brush by Sigma and blended it using a crease brush. The general trick to any smokey eye is: Apply and blend, apply and blend. Just do that untill you achieve the look you want, in between blending you may need to change brush or spotclean your brush. Eventually if the brush has too much shadow in it, it won't blend anymore, just move shadow around.

To make the look a little more intense I applied my Urban Decay Glide On Pencil in Demolition on the inner rims of the eye and also on my upper and lower lash line. I also used the dark bronze shadow on the lower lash line just to tie everything together.

Curl lashes and apply a generous coat of mascara! Dark smokey eyes have a tendency to almost swallow up lashes, so if doing this look when going out I'd definitely advise false lashes. If you're not a fan of falsies, just plenty of coats of a good mascara will do. I'm sure this is getting boring by now, but I used my Tweezerman Lash Curler and my Maybelline One by One Waterproof mascara.

To finish off the skin I applied Rimmels Stay Matte Powder in 003 Peach Glow. It's very matte powder, but I like a very matte skin when going out, especially if dancing is going to be involved! As the eyes are obviously the focus of this look, I kept the skin very simple and just applied my Honey Bronze Bronzer on the outside of my face: Along the hairline, under cheekbones and jawbone. It helps make my face look a little slimmer and also just brings a little colour into my skin. I obviously have a lot of redness in my face so with a look like this, I just totally skip blush. If you have completely even skin, a touch of neutral blush is definitely advised, to avoid "dead looking" skin.

To keep the lips simple and nude I used this Round Lipstick by NYX in the colour Circe. It's a warm beige-nude and the formula is creamy enough that it doesn't need a gloss on top. 

And here's the full result!

Tadaaah, I'm ready for a night on the town!

What do you think of this look? What kind of makeup do you wear when going out? Let know in the comments below!

Thank you for reading and untill next time!

XXX

Work apropriate: Brown smokey eye and colourful lip!

Time for a step-by-step tutorial!

I start with moisturizing and priming my face and eyes!

For primer I used Smashbox Photofinish and my eyeprimer is as always Too Faced Shadow Insurance.

I then applied a thin layer of foundation, using a beautyblender-sponge. For foundation I used three different kinds, all mixed together for the perfect color and finish.

Then I concealed my dark-circles. They are the bane of my existence and have been for many years. They can get very dark and very purple. My undereye concealer of choice is the Maybelline Eraser Eye.

To define my brows I used my Catrice Brow Pencil and Urban Decay "Buck" eyeshadow. I've recently switched up how I do my brows, since I've dyed my hair red, needed to add some warmth to them.

At first I defined my crease only using "Naked" eyeshadow from my Urban Decay Naked Pallette, but I felt like it wasn't defined enough, so I decided to add "Buck" as well.

Buck is a warm mid-tone brown, which is a great option for the crease, and since my lid color would be a cool tone, I figured a warm crease would be a good option.

For my lid I wanted a dark, cool brown, so I first started out with Maybellines Color Tattoo in "Permanent Taupe". I have a few of these cream eyeshadows and I adore them! They can be used as bases or worn on their own, they do NOT budge once they've set on the skin.

To get the smokey look I wanted, I topped the Color Tattoo off with a brown Inglot shade, from my Freedom System pallette.

 I blended this onto the lid, slightly into the crease and on my lower lashline for extra definition.

I smudged a soft black kohl eyeliner onto my lash line and blended that in with a dark-brown eyeshadow. (I didn't manage to get a separate pic of this, sorry ladies!)

I curled my lashes, added mascara and a light, flesh-toned liner to my lower waterline. I rarely use dark liners on my lower waterline, they smudge too much and tend to get stuck on my lenses.

That's our eyes done! Moving on to the rest of the face!

I always start doing my cheeks with contouring. Contouring means that you strategically apply a dark blush/shade/bronzer to places of the face you want to slim down. I always do my temples, under my cheekbones and along my jaw-line. 

I then apply my blush of choice for the day, and a shimmery highlight right above the cheekbones, which I also place on the very highest point of my brow for a slight touch of shimmer. My blush here was NYX "Peach" and my highlighter was Dior "Rose Diamond".

Our lipstick for today is from the new Rimmel Kate Moss Collection, Velvet Touch. The shade I am using is 107, a completely matte berry/wine color. It's a very intense and pigmented color to wear full on, but what I did today was just apply to the middle of my lips and blend it out with my finger. This gives the look of a lipstain instead of a lipstick. A very good way to wear bright/dark colors to work, school, college, you name it.

And the finished result! A work/school apropriate smokey eye and a very colorful lip! I hope you all enjoyed this, thank you for reading and let me know your thoughts in the comments below!